Check out a post card I’m having done that we will mainly be using to flier through the slow season. I can still make changes, so please feel free to comment!
Also, do the price differentials surprise anyone else here? I had ths card formatted for a 6x11, but the 4x6 is WAY cheaper to print. I didn’t realize nextdayfliers would have such a large increase in price.
Any ideas of what I may be missing???
That looks great Curt. Saw your news video of doing that gigantic job - awesome stuff.
This is mine but I’m not sure if the file will download properly.
21 cents a card for only 100 is a great price.
looks sweet…I like the Biosphere comment, thought it sounded good
Love the smiles!
I think it says, “Cheeseballs at your service”! But we took 8 photos and that was [unfortunately] the best all around. I believe that everyone did have at least one good photo, but it was the closed eyes, goofy faces of others, or bad lighting that prevented anyone from getting their #1 photo into the actual flyer.
Curt, I can do some photo magic and make everyone look super happy 
“say I love PCP!!!” jk
Would you guys send something out like this in it’s current state? Or would you recommend adding or taking away anything?
Okay, gimme a minute here.
Some stuff I love, some stuff I wanna play with.
Hold up…
How many are you planning on sending out? Why not design another completely different, and see if there is better success with one over another.
I think it looks good. I would send it in it’s current state. The only slight thing I would worry about is will these get out to the potential client with enough time to book before Jan 31st. I’m sure you’ve got that all planned out though.
Okay, for the one with you guys holding the sign:
Love the personalization of you guys smiling, brilliant to put your personality in there, now you have to connect some dots.
How are you “more than just window cleaners”?
Community-driven? Charity supporters?
If so, could you hold a giant fake check maybe, in that space?
Is it possible that you could make available a more attractive offer, than simply 10% off?
[SIZE=“1”]Could you send me this source file, Curt?[/SIZE]
[SIZE=“1”]
I’ve been playing with the jpg, but with the blending, shadows, and fancy backgrounds its just a mess to cut and paste.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=“1”]If you’d like me to see what I can do, that is.[/SIZE]
For the “other” one, with the window, here’s my take:
[I]Features need specific benefits.
Needs a stronger headline.
Overall pic is pretty, but not persuasive, because doesn’t emphasize benefits.
Remove company info except for logo (assuming this is the back of the other one shown)
“See the 5star difference” - what is the 5star difference, and how will it help them?
[/I]
Some cool stuff that’s missing altogether, and that could also help:
Hope that helps.
kD
P.S. its very pretty, don’t get me wrong, but pretty’s only part of it.
VERY cool idea, with you guys holding the sign, very versatile for future ideas. It’s also a perfect place for a guarantee.
Curt, I don’t know if it will be effective, still learning some of that here and I don’t qualify to “grade” a marketing piece yet, but graphically is really appealing, I like it.
Are you getting those professionally designed or you made them ?
Good luck with them and keep us posted so we can copy or stay away
Curt, I believe you’re using Photoshop Eliments right?
Forgive me if I post something already advised, I did not read any replies.
Here is a great experiment that you all need to write down. Take all the pictures out of the ad and what do you have?
[B]5 Star
Family owned
We clean the windows at the Biosphere 2
5 Star
“more than just window cleaners”
10% off if scheduled by xxxxxx[/B]
Now, why should I call? Why are you “more than just window cleaners”? Do I care if you are more than window cleaners? Do I care if you clean the Biosphere windows? How much is 10% off?
Basically you give them absolutley no reason to call if the 10% fails (which it will). Your ad is completely focused on 5 Star and not at all on the potential customer. This is what most of us do when creating our own ads, talk about ourselves.
You need to remove the focus of YOU. They see 3000+ ads a day and they have become totally numb and very choosey as to which ones get their attention.
Do not create words to add to your pictures, create pictures to add to your words (message). Pictures tell, stories sell.
As for postcard prices, all printers charge a lot more for jumbo size. Do they work better? who knows for sure. It will not matter with this card the way it is.
Hopefully the scrutiny you asked for was not offensive. I really do not mean to be insulting to you.
Always ask “why?” when creating your ad. Know who you are sending it to and why do they care.
Looks of the card means nothing if it does not have something to say.
5 Star, how are these being delivered, by hand or by mail?
I normally use the Adobe creative suite to do my own stuff, and I had gotten pretty proficient with it, but I wanted to take the next step and get a professional to do it. So as far as paying for a bunch of different ones… I won’t really be able to justify the cost of his design time to do a bunch of experiments (particularly because we are doing this to combat the slow season).
Here is the input I gave the designer:
I want it to tell the story as much as possible with pictures and such so that in the time they are taking it from their front door (of their monstrous house) to the garbage can, we can say as much as possible… and hopefully save them from throwing it away. Hopefully it will trigger one or more of these actions:
In the end, of course, getting the phone to ring, or a website bid request are the only actions I care about.
This is what he came up with, and he will be giving me the PSD’s and the final AI files so I can change the date and keep printing in short runs. We plan to distribute 1000 total next week. About 250 will be distributed via mail and I will hand write the info for the gated communities that I have been wanting to crack into that just popped up via info from Zillow & Live Maps. The rest will be slid into doors from my employees as the schedule is looking pretty open for such things right now. They’ll get hours, and I’ll get these things distributed. I appreciate the input thus far, and I have to run my daughter to school in a bit, but I will be back in a couple hours… this info is gold. I wonder if my approach to give to the designer was either not done as well as you guys envisioned or if the whole premise was off… probably a combination of the two.
Keep it coming, I’m not blowing this stuff off. I’ll be back!
They look awesome. I like the expiration date, it creates urgency.
As I mentioned before, I am trying to use the 10 seconds from the front door to the garbage can to say as much as possible… so I was hoping to use pics to tell the story and only words where necessary. However, I’m thinking the pictures aren’t as effective as they could be, now that I’m getting feedback.
As far as being more than window cleaners, I was trying to do a few things…
That is always a great question… I’m not really good at that, but I was hoping to give an urgent offer to make them act quick before filing it away as a “someday, maybe” (in the words of Dave Allen). Any other ideas? I’ve had limited success with free screen sealing or free track cleaning, but for some reason I feel like it doesn’t pull that hard on the customer, and it also kind of limits any homeowner who has an office building under their concern from even considering us to do that job. You know what I mean? I wanted to make sure that if a real estate agent, construction contractor, building manager, etc got this that it would answer questions they might have.
I will have the source once I finalize this and pay him… I can see his point there.
I see what you mean there, for sure. My hope there, is that they easily see that we have a website so they can go there or call to answer questions. Of course the whole point is to have them call or fill out a website bid request. I may have gone a bit overboard in that quest. 
The contrasting windows were supposed to show that for one. If they already had a window cleaner, and were thinking about changing, I was hoping that would speak to them. Or again, maybe that’s one more reason to call. Do you think I need more text going into our “5 Star Commitment”
Of course it helps. You are super helpful! Once we own the AI files and such we plan to use this graphic design spend for quite a few other projects. I want to get our milage out of this. I really appreciate everyone’s input because I want to make this investment really work… Hiring a pro designer and all!
Although you did miss a few words, I do see your point.
Since I’m trying to sell a feeling, I had told the designer to tell the story as much as possible with pictures. My initial thinking is that my target with this:
So, you have me second guessing whether this narrow market is really who I want to target. Do I want to try to target people who need to know how much a window cleaning is going to cost immediately? Do I need to be pointing out that their life is so busy and that we can ease that burden while adding clarity to their life? Maybe. I still don’t think this flier in this exact situation is what I’m after; only because the feeling I get from the economic situation is that I’m not going to have tons of success bringing homeowners on board with a new expense of window cleaning, changing their minds to add value to window cleaning that wasn’t already there.
But I don’t know a lot about marketing, which I why I asked for your scrutiny. I’m going to need a bit of time to ponder whether I change the entire direction, or whether I feel that this will sufficiently ring the phone with a few tweaks.
I don’t know if I agree (although if I pursue this route, I will honestly let you know) that 10% can so easily be labeled a failure, for my reasons listed above, but I am applying for a job. I do want to stand out as a professional company. I want them to feel secure about who is going into their kids’ rooms.
I figure I just have a few seconds to grab their attention before it hits the trash (which is why I hired the designer), and then create the action of getting the phone to ring.
My initial “why” was: “Why should I get my windows cleaned this time of year?”
I wonder if you think I should start over with a different “why” that addresses, “Why should I get my windows cleaned?”
I really value the time you have spent looking this over. What I don’t want this to seem like is a defensive argument as to why I didn’t really want input, because I do. I just don’t know if the angle you are coming from is the angle I’m seeking. So my question becomes, do you think my angle has less merit (and is the flier efficiently hitting it’s mark), or do you think I need a more broad and sweeping angle?
I sat down with the designer yesterday and pulled up this thread. He was impressed with the amount of knowledge expressed by you all and we went to work. Instead of re-doing the whole thing, be erased the biosphere picture and replaced it with a more residential-applicable picture. We changed wording to cater to the customer’s needs and I hope to have a proof early next week. I really appreciate the input and criticism, I hope the next one is a bit more polished.
I wasn’t able to improve upon the 10% offer… Any ideas there?
Yup - how about a free Biosphere admission, if that would be something that your target market would want, for every residential window cleaning client in Jan or something.
Would they want that? Is it a popular place?
How expensive would that be?
